Jury Citation

“John Lorinc invites readers to consider how technology – specifically smart city tech – fits into the overall city-building equation. For him, smart cities are not a shiny new invention, but a continuation of an aspirational and historical trajectory toward ‘utopia.’ He argues that the pursuit of utopia must not be naively extracted from the political, socio-economic, spatial, physical, cultural layers that compose a city. Rather, drawing upon cases from around the world, he offers a framework for thinking about the future of urban living. Lorinc compels readers to consider the future of cities not only in the post-pandemic period, but also amid an accelerating and worsening climate crisis.”